In today’s topsy-turvy economy, it’s only natural that your customers have money on their minds—namely, how to make it and how to spend as little of it as possible while still getting value for their dollar. It’s all too easy for them to fixate on the price tag. Your mission: show them a true bargain has true value, not just a low price.

Once your customers comprehend the value of what you’re offering, they’ll stop fretting about whether your price is lowest. Value is unique to each individual, so it’s imperative to ask your customers what’s important to them. When you quantify costs for them to show how much money they are or will be wasting if they don’t do business with you, you’re not only showing them how to save money, you’re also allaying their fears about spending money on your particular product or service versus staying in their comfort zone with their current vendor. But how do you get them to look past the price tag?

Low-Level Managers Need Love, Too

When any purchasing agent or front-line manager squeezes you on price, it’s frustrating! All you want is to make him recognize the profitability and value of your business solution. All he does is dance around it, singing, “Of course, profitability and value are important, but how will you save me money?” Flip the record over and hear what he’s really singing.

Few kids say, “I want to shuffle paper when I grow up.” Your contact is probably toiling away in a basement office, standing on a chair just to look out the window, hoping to work his way into an office upstairs, where everything’s better—the view, the salary, even the vending machine food! He’s exerting what little power he has now on vendors like you, proving his worth by doing things such as, yep, keeping an iron grip on that low price. Plus, he deals with so many salespeople making promises that you become just another face in an increasingly maddening crowd.

So you see, for any purchasing agent, this issue runs deeper than price or value. He wants to belong, to feel like he matters. Without saying it out loud, he’s telling you his biggest values are:

Recognition from his boss and his colleagues. He wants to be recognized and rewarded for getting the lowest price, so of course he’ll try to get that price. Like all of us, he wants his boss to say, “Hey, you just saved the company thousands of dollars! You’re awesome at your job! High-five!” He wants his colleagues to think, “Wow, I want to be as successful as he is so the boss will high-five me, too!”

Justification. His self-esteem soaring, our money-conscious front-line manager thinks, “Great, I saved my company money! I’m valuable! My job is safe!” He’s justified his existence, confirming to his company and his boss that his contributions are worthwhile and that he’s a “keeper.”Understand Where They’re Coming From

Once you understand where low to mid-level decision-makers are coming from, you can lead them to a sale by stepping into their mindset and tapping into what they value in life as well as in business. You must:

1. Understand their fears. Most people are satisfied with something average. With fears ranging from leaving their comfort zone, to looking foolish, to spending more money than the boss would ideally like, to losing their job, they’re more likely to passively avoid what they don’t like than to actively pursue what they want. 2. Understand what they’re up against. People want to do a good job and make a decent living, but they also want to leave by 5 P.M. and have time for a life, especially when they have families. Meanwhile, they’re competing for resources, clamoring for attention, and mired in the minutiae of daily obligations. As a result, they unwittingly overlook the bigger picture. Show that front-line manager a solution that’ll bring the big picture back into focus. After all, pitching how you can help his company increase profitability may mean nothing to him unless it has a direct impact on his year-end bonus. He may be thinking, “Yeah, like my boss needs to drive another new Lexus while I can barely get around in my ten-year-old junker—which was ‘pre-owned’ when I bought it!” 3. Understand their need to feel appreciated. To some extent, many of the workers you deal with feel overworked and underrespected. All they really ask is that you make them look good. Provide them with solutions that’ll take paperwork off their desks and keep their bosses happy with them, and they’ll be happy with you.

When companies keep a narrow focus on increasing profitability, people can easily slip below the radar. When the company has a great year, the CEO rarely says, “We owe it all to our purchasing agents toiling down in the basement, saving us 5 cents apiece on widgets.” You can combat getting cornered on price by talking about the lowest total cost. On-time delivery, faster time to market, support, quality, peace of mind, ease of use—these all contribute to the lowest total cost. Now you’ll really be able to get into what makes your customers tick, see what’s really driving them. When you hear “lowest price,” don’t scamper like a squirrel—instead, take a deep breath and start asking good questions that go beyond the price issue. You’ll find out what they really want and why they want it, as opposed to what they’re telling you they want.Questions To Uncover What Your Customers Value

Choose some of the following questions to add to your arsenal of sales techniques:

“How do you measure success with your current vendor?”

“What alternatives are you considering now? What alternatives have you considered in the past? What alternatives are you considering for the future?”

“Share with me the criteria you use when you’re selecting a _____.”

“How important do you feel price is, compared to service? Compared to quality? Compared to availability? Compared to ‘time to market’?”

“How important is quality compared to availability? Compared to service? Compared to price?”

“When it comes to price, quality, service, delivery, customer support, and ease of use, which matters most to you? Which matters least?”

Let’s say your customer cited quality as a priority: “You mentioned that quality is important to you. Would you share with me your definition of quality?”

“Can you give me an example of when your standards for quality were not met?”

“Can you rank the criteria you shared with me, from most important to least important?”

“You mentioned that price, quality, and service were three important criteria. In addition to those, what other criteria might be important to you?”

“Let’s assume you are looking at three potential vendors who meet all of your criteria (including price). How would you make your final decision?”

“You mentioned that the most important thing for you is price. How does that compare to what engineering (manufacturing, design, production, marketing, fulfillment) thinks is most important?”

“Think back to when you first chose your current product. What were your selection criteria? Based on what you know now, how would those criteria change?”

“Think ahead to three years from now. What do you anticipate will be most important at that time—the initial price of the product? Or the peace of mind you’ll have, knowing you’re getting the necessary support long after a purchase was made?”

“Which characteristics of this product are ‘must haves’ for you, and which are optional?”

“The changes we have discussed would result in an increase in profits. What would you do with that increase in available funding?”

“What alternatives to this problem have you considered?”

“You have told me that your company has allocated $_____ for this product. How was that amount determined?”

“Do you think the allocation of funds is sufficient for the project at hand?”

“Based on what I’ve presented, what do you like most about the proposal?”

“Of the areas we’ve discussed, what might cause you some concern?”

Show your customers your solution will help solve these problems. Get them to define value based on their specific needs, and it’ll be much easier to justify your solution as a smarter investment over lower-priced alternatives. Once you know your prospects’ needs inside and out, you’ll be able to present your services and solutions as a great value at any price.

About Paul Cherry

Paul Cherry is principal assessor, trainer and motivational coach. He has more than 19 years of experience in sales, management, executive leadership and performance improvement strategies.His expertise is in aligning individual behaviors with organizational strategies and values. To date he worked… more